Community is such a buzzword, isn’t it? Real. Authentic. Safe. These are common ways to describe what we’re going for. But if you’re like me, sometimes it’s hard to understand what any of that actually means. We know we want community, but how will we know when we’ve found it? We need a vision for it.
For the past few months, I’ve been reading many speeches, letters, and articles by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. It’s been an eye opening experience for me. I’ve learned and grown as I’ve sat at his feet and soaked in his passion and hope in God. So over the next three weeks, I want to share with you some of what I’ve learned from him. And the first is King’s vision for community, which he called the Beloved Community.
1. Community is a place of love
At the heart of the Beloved Community is love. This doesn’t mean everyone feels warm and fuzzy all the time. Love is more than just a feeling; it’s a commitment to the goodwill of others. This means we can’t come to a community solely for what it gives us. We come so we can give. In the Beloved Community, each person gives themselves to each other for the benefit and uplifting of everyone else. The Beloved Community rests on self-sacrificing, other-serving love.
2. Community is a place of connection
The Beloved Community is a place where we trade something shallow and superficial for true relationship. King wrote that we’re “tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” Our lives become intertwined in community. If someone strikes my neighbor, he strikes me too. My neighbor’s burden is mine and my burden is my neighbors. And in this place we bear those burdens together in love.
3. Community is a place of inclusion
True community includes anyone who desires a seat at the table. Even in the face of violent racism and segregationist policies, King refused to exclude anyone from this communal vision. His goal wasn’t to see his oppressors shamed or humiliated; it was to win them as friends. He hungered for reconciliation so that everyone could be included. King longed for the day when even those who beat him could sit at the table with him, included in the Beloved Community as his friend.
What I love most about King’s vision of community is that he captures the heart of Jesus. King didn’t invent the Beloved Community; Jesus did. The Beloved Community is the place where a Samaritan binds up the wounds of a stranger (Luke 10:29-37). It’s the place where the wayward are received with a kiss (Luke 10:20-23). It’s the place where even little children get to sit at the adults’ table (Luke 18:15-17). By his blood, Jesus has established the Beloved Community and he calls it his church.
This gives me a vision for what Christian community can look like. Now I’ll know it when I see it. When we talk about discipleship through relationship, this is our goal. We want to be a church where people seek the good of others, share each other’s burdens, and include even the most far-flung outsider. Because we believe that in a Beloved Community like this, we find Jesus and in him we find the fullness of life.
In Him,
Tom